Butternut Squash Lasagna!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef, sausage or turkey
1 red onion
3 cloves garlic
15 oz pizza/tomato sauce
1/2 c roasted red peppers
1/4 c olive oil
few leaves of fresh basil
1 small butternut squash

Process:

- Preheat oven 400ºF. In a saute pan crumble the sausage and brown it, along with the onions & garlic. While that’s going, cut the top and ends of the squash off and peel it. Split it into 1/4′s. What I mean by that is, right where the squash starts to turn bulbous, cut it in 1/2, width-wise. Split those two halves in half, lengthwise. This will make it much easier to cut into planks. Pull out the seeds. Slice the squash into the aforementioned planks.

- Make the sauce by pureeing the pizza sauce, red peppers, olive oil and basil. If you don’t a contraption that will puree (blender, food processor, immersion blender), chop up the red peppers and just whisk everything together.

- Using a 9×9 oven safe baking dish, put down enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the dish. (This keeps the squash from sticking to the pan.) Next add the squash, trying not to overlap the pieces, then spoon on the sausage mixture, followed by the sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up…trying to reserve enough sauce to cover the top of the lasagna.

- Bake for 45 minutes. You’re looking for a bubbly pan with a crispy, browned top. Right out of the oven, the lasagna may by liquidy, let it set for a good half hour before cutting into it, as it will solidify.

Thai Shrimp Curry!

Thai Shrimp Curry


1 pound peeled, deveined shrimp
1 tablespoon coconut oil
½ onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more if you like it really spicy)
3 teaspoons red curry paste
1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 can coconut milk
5-10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Cauli-rice, steps above

Heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil over medium high heat. Toss in the chopped onion and sauté about 3-5 minutes until the onion begins to caramelize and turn light brown. Add the bell pepper, curry paste, red pepper flakes and garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Grab your whisk and slowly add the coconut milk whisking frequently to prevent the curry paste from clumping. Lower the heat to medium and add in the shrimp, continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes. Check for seasonings, add more curry or red pepper flakes to amp up the heat and salt and pepper to taste. Cut the heat and toss in the chopped basil and serve over steamed rice or cauliflower rice.

* This dish can also be made with chicken in place of shrimp. Slice the breasts into thin strips and follow the same steps above. You can also toss in broccoli florets, snap peas or even frozen baby peas to really amp up your veggie servings. Just add the additional veggies at the same time as your protein.

What Paleo Isn't

Almost half way done with the challenge and I hope most of you are starting to figure this NEWtrition thing out. Whether your journey consists of strict paleo or zone-paleo, I'm sure you have been meticulously weighing, measuring, reading and cooking. With all of the knowledge you are taking in, it's easy to forget just how simple the idea of eating real food really is. Here is a little blurb from a one of my favorite blogs, everydaypaleo.com to help remind you. There is so much out there to learn in regards to paleo and clean eating. These ideas are always progressing, the work is never done. As information continues to become more and more abundant, detailed and ridiculously scientific, don't forget about the simplicity of the diet. It's fundamentals are so pure and easy to understand that it's truly hard to fuck it up. Go forth and feed your minds, hearts and stomachs appropriately. It all does a body good.

What Paleo Isn't 

By Jason Seib

Because our society is plagued with diets, most of which make no sense, many people come into this paleo thing with a few preconceived notions.  I would like to address some of these misnomers and get us back on the same page.  The following is a short discussion of the things paleo is often assumed to be, but in reality is not.

The most important one for me is that The Paleo Diet is not a diet.  I know, it really doesn’t make any sense when you say it like that, but it’s true.  The Paleo Diet is the modern nomenclature for human nutrition, and the fact that we need to name the concept of “human food” means we have reached a completely ridiculous place in the evolution of our species where we have forgotten who we are and where we came from.  It seems like I say this every time I open my mouth or sit down at a computer, but here I go again – humans are the only creatures on earth that use the word “diet” as a verb.  Animals don’t do diets, they have a diet.  They also don’t suffer from the extensive list of noninfectious diseases that we do.  What is the lesson here?  We need to try to find the ideal human diet in today’s modern world.  Or by definition, go paleo.

Another thing that paleo does not define is a macro nutrient profile.  The word “diet”, even in most research papers, is synonymous with weighing and measuring food, even if it’s only part of the intake that we’re interested in, like carbs or fat.  Paleo is simply food choices.  This means that higher carb paleo and lower fat paleo are completely acceptable as long as your goals reflect those choices.  For example, high carb paleo with lots of sweet potatoes, yams and butternut squash is still paleo, but it probably isn’t the best choice for fat loss.  On the other hand, if you are an athlete and you need more carbs for peak performance, there is no reason why paleo will not work for you and plenty of reasons why a more neolithic way of eating will be detrimental.

Paleo is also not inherently a weight loss or muscle gain plan.  It is a health plan. If you are over weight, getting healthy will mean getting leaner.  If you just gave up running marathons, getting healthy will mean gaining some muscle mass.  Beyond basic health, paleo and training can be tweaked for more muscle gain or fat loss.  That is not something that can be said for most “diets”.  Try packing on muscle mass on Weight Watchers sometime.

Finally, paleo is not an excuse to not exercise.  Proper nutrition is absolutely essential, but it doesn’t change the fact that the acquisition of food was inextricably tied to movement for all but the last miniscule fraction of time that our genus has been biped-ing it up on earth.  Since the kitchen, in all it’s glory, is is merely steps away these days, you will need to get out and mimic proper human movement.  Please note that I said “mimic proper human movement.”

Perspective is everything.  All this stuff will fall into place for you when your perspective is right.

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, diced
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced into 2 inch cubes
3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced.

1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 cups stock or water

Directions:

In a large pot warm oil
Carmelize onion, sautéing 10-15 minutes until golden brown
Add squash cubes, apple slices and cinnamon and cook for 10 minutes
Pour stock into pot and bring mixture to a boil
Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes
In a Vitamix, puree soup in very small batches (for safety)
Serve hot

Here are some notes on this recipe:

• Feel free to make this soup with other types of winter squash such as pumpkin, acorn, delicata, etc.
• I used a 2 ½ pound butternut squash for this recipe (weight is prior to peeling and de-seeding)
• Experiment with other warming spices such as ginger and nutmeg
• I used Braeburn apples in this soup; feel free to experiment with other types of apples

Squash is a very healthy, hearty, nutrient dense vegetable, full of carotenoids and other beneficial antioxidants. Further, it is thought that squash is both anti-inflammatory and helpful in regulating blood sugar.

(Recipe and notes can be found at elanaspantry.com.)